Oar



Aug. 4, 1925.

G. Y. PococK OAR Filed March 1924 Patented Aug. 4, 1925 UNITED STATES GEORGE Y. POCOCK, OF SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.

Application ledMarch 8, 1924. Serial No. 697,736;

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it` known'that I, GEORGE Y. Pococn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle, in the county of King, State of lVashington, have inventedcertainnew and usetulfImproveme-nts in Gars, of which the following is a specification.

This inventionfrelates te oars and sculls, and has for; its objects to provide an` oar construction which will be much strenger than theoar made in thev usualv way; to provide an oar which will take a better grip on the water; and which will be easy and cheap to make, have a long life, and be satisfactory and eiiicient in use.

I attain these and other objects by the devices and arrangements illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which :*Fig. l is a general elevation or an oar constructed 0 in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged similar view of a portion of the loom thereefshowing the reenforcement atv theI :tulcrum; Figs. 3 and 4e are cross-sectionsref two alternate Jforms of the loom taken on the line a-ct in Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is an elevation of the blade ofv my oar before it is attached tothe loomyFig. 6 is a longitudinal: section thereof en theline (T2-) in Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a cross-section thereof on the line 0 0 in Fig. 5; and Fig. 8 is a similar view on the line cZ-(Z in Fig. 5. Similar numerals ory reference refer to similar. parts throughout the severalviews.

Although the illustrations and description herein have special reterence to oars and sculls for use in college, club or naval racing shells and. practice boats, it is to be understood that the invention may be applied to the construction and manufacture of oars and sculls intended for other uses. Heretotore the practice has been to saw the oar out of ay single solid plank, the blade and the loom being of one piece and the longitudinal curvature, when viewed in side elevation or longitudinal` section (as Fig.

6.), has been obtained by sawing` out the unnecessary wood After the. rough shape was thus 'formed the oar was` manually brought to dimension and shape and lin- 0 ished off. This type o-oar was the best obtainable but had two weak points, of which the .rst is that the violent strain applied to the loom wasoftenl s uiiicient. to break the oar at the fulcrum. This. is of such common occurrence that, for. instance, some oars were broken at the fulcrum last year at the University of Washington. The secondweak pointl of these oars is due to the fact, that the spoon .or blade is cut and shaped from a single piece of wood and has to-be very thin tomake it lightin order that the recovery stroke may be rapid, and therefore2 when the oar is strained during the working stroke, this portion bendsand,

in bending, spills or loses its grip on the water andslips backward toa far greater degree than it would if it did notf bend at the end. Since every inchot. backward slip ofthe oar blade means an equal lossot distance traversed by the boat, withoutany substantialv reduction in the work done by the rower, it` follows that the boat-Q is c0rrespondingly retarded at each stroke and that the crewv are performing the unnecessary work occasioned by the slipping oars and, to that extent, are'moving the waterv instead of' the boat. In order to overcome these two tailings I have devisedV the iolsur-face of the blade is, considered as hori- Zontal and'that at right-angles thereto. as vertical;

Referring now to the drawingstheY loom 1 may be made of a single piece of wood or, if desired, it can be made of two. parallel pieces, joined' along the vertical longitudi- .nal center line and routed out at those parts which are less strained. This loom 1 ismade of light wood, such as spruce, and I reenforce it at the 'tulcrum by inserting a block 2 in the central vertical' plane thereof. This block 2 is glued or otherwise cemented voar blade.

in place and may be of any desired shape though I prefer to make it in diamond .or double triangular plan (Figs. 1 and 2) while in section it may either have parallel sides (Fig. 3) or may be wedge-shaped (Fig. 4), in which latter case it is widest on theback side of the oar. This block 2 is preferably made of hard wood but, in certain instances, it may be made of other substances such as composition or metal. I place the widest part of the diamond block 2 exactly at the fulcrum point where the oarlock engages the oar. The blade end 3 of the loom is tapered from the wrist 4 toA a chisel edge (Fig. l) and its thicknessis also tapered to correspond with the thickness ofthe blade from point to point therein. The loom is thereforeinade in a separate piece and is entirely independent of the'blade, thus greatly facil1- tatingits manufacture.

The `blade 5 is provided with a central V shaped cut G` (Fig. 5) in which the tapered end 3 of the loom accurately fits and is' glued. In order to stiften the blade 5 against deflection under the strain in thewater, without thickening it or materially altering its weight, I form said blade of a plurality of layers or laminations. As shown in the drawing, I prefer Vto make it of three thin laminations 7, of equal thickness, with acore 8. This core 8 is of varying thickness, being tapered down from its. thickest part at the wrist 4 to a thin edge near the tipof the blade." Two thin laminations, are preferably placed on the palm side of the core 8 while one thickness thereof is placed onthe back side thereof, and forms the back of the forming the palm and back, andthe core 8 are preferably arranged with the'libers par'- allel to the longitudinal axis of the oar while the inner thickness 7 is at right-angles thereto and lie across the blade. As shown in Figs. 6 and 8, the V-shaped out 6 exposes a large surface ofthe core 8 and this gives the glue a better` chance to fasten the blade to the loom'than if many thin laminations should be used, but I do not wish. to limit this construction. to any particular number of laminations. y

The shape of the blade 5 is substantially the same as the standard practice, being curved Vin plan(Fig. 5) and side elevation (Fig. 6,) and conca-ved or cupped ,in the palm and convexed in the back (Figs. 7 and 8). It may be made of spruce Vorl other wood, or combinations of woods, by gluing the several parts together ina properly shaped form whereby the desireddegree's of curvatures may be obtained. y After being thus formed it is shaped vin general outline and then glued to the loom and the finishing touches applied to it and to the whole oar thus produced.

It is a well known fact that objects built The two outer thicknesses 7,

end of the loom and up of a plurality of lan'iinations of thinV wood glued together are very strong so far as splitting is concerned, and when these laminations are curved, especially if curved on two axes, they are exceedingly stiff and therefore it will be understood that this oar is not only practically indestructible but that it also holds its shape and therefore 'retains its grip on the water much better Having, therefore, described my invention, what I claim is l. In an oar, the combination of a loom provided at the fulcrum with an aperture; and a relatively short reenforcing block insei-ted therein at the point of application o the load.

2. An oar as set forth in claim l, wherein said reenforcing block extends entirely through the loom.

3. An oar as set forth in claim 1, wherein said reenforcing block is glued in a cavity in said loom.

4. An oar as set forth in claim 1, wherein said reenforcing block is of varying Width, being widest at the point of application of the load and tapered oil' in each direction therefrom. t Y

5. An oar as set forth in claim 1, wherein said reenforcing block is tapered in crosssection, being widest on the back side of the t oar.

6. An oar comprisinga loom and a blade` separately and independently formed, the

blade being provided with a longitudinal recess extending entirely through the blade from front to back and receiving the adja cent end of the loom and presentingside gluing faces to the same.`

7. An oar comprising a loom and a blade separately and independently formed, the

loom having a tapered end and the blade bel ing provided with a tapered longitudinal recess extending entirely through the blade from front to back and receiving the tapered senting smooth unbroken front and rear faces.

9. An oar blade constructed separate from presenting side gluing t the loom and consisting of a thick core of the Same Width as the blade and bent to form, together With a plurality of thin laminations extending entirely across the blade,

5 all said parte being secured together.

10. An oar blade as set forth in claim 9, wherein said core is of Varying thickness,

being thickest at the oar Wrist and tapered towards the tip.

11. An oar blade as set forth in claim 9, 10 wherein Said core lies between two of said laininations.

GEORGE Y. POCOCK. 

